George Michael: Outed Episode Rating Graph

After his arrest, George Michael turned the PR playbook on its head - coming out on TV, and releasing hit video Outside celebrating gay hook-ups dressed as a cop.

Splashed across the headlines, simply for being gay, destroyed an anaesthetist's army career, and almost his life.

In 1998, George Michael was arrested for a lewd act in a LA toilet. The pop pin-up's secret was out. But why was it a secret? And how did George's exposure turn into a blow for gay liberation?

Through the 1980s and 90s, gay people were outed by the tabloid press against their will. Tory MP Harvey Proctor's political career was destroyed. And then 30 years later it happened again.